Faceless YouTube Shorts Automation: OpenAI + Orshot (n8n)

Automate daily Faceless YouTube Shorts with OpenAI + Orshot (n8n)

This n8n workflow generates and uploads a faceless YouTube Short every day at 9am—OpenAI writes the script and metadata, Orshot creates a lip-synced 9:16 talking-presenter clip with captions, and the finished MP4 is uploaded to YouTube automatically.

What this workflow does

• Runs on a schedule: A Schedule Trigger starts the process daily at 9:00am.
• Configures your inputs: You set the niche, channel handle, Orshot template ID, presenter photo URL, voice ID, and YouTube upload settings (privacy/region).
• Generates a Short package with OpenAI: OpenAI produces structured JSON including topic, hook, a 35–45 word script, a stat, plus the Short’s title and description.
• Creates the presenter clip in Orshot: The workflow sends the script and presenter photo URL to Orshot to generate a synced 9:16 talking-presenter clip.
• Renders and captions the final video: Orshot renders the Short using your template, injects the clip and text fields, and generates subtitles from the clip audio.
• Uploads to YouTube Shorts: The workflow downloads the rendered MP4 and uploads it to YouTube with the generated title/description and your chosen privacy/region settings.

Use cases

• Maintain a consistent publishing cadence for a faceless niche channel (daily Shorts without manual editing).
• SaaS operators testing repeatable “content-at-scale” automation pipelines with OpenAI + Orshot.
• n8n users who want a practical workflow that goes from topic → video → YouTube upload end-to-end.

Technical details

• Nodes / integrations: Schedule Trigger, Set, HTTP Request, YouTube (Google), and n8nn8n-nodes-langchainopen ai (OpenAI).
• Credentials needed: OpenAI credential, Orshot API key (as an Orshot credential), and YouTube (Google) OAuth with YouTube Data API access.
• Setup reference: Template guidance is available here: https://orshot.com/blog/how-to-make-facel.